


There's a Big Mess Going on Outside

by judgementdays



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Future Fic, Genetic Engineering, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 04:48:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4593408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/judgementdays/pseuds/judgementdays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I know,” Harry says, and his voice is even softer. “But we can’t do anything without you either. You’re some big hot shot now, eh? Big mind controller. Bet you’re gonna force me to love you,” he teases, to change the subject from the scariness that is real life. Louis would know. He can read his mind.</p>
<p>“You already love me,” Louis snorts, shaking his head.</p>
<p>“How do I know that wasn't one of your weird mind control things? Maybe you’re forcing me into a love spell,” Harry continues, and he’s trying to make him smile. It’s working.</p>
<p>“Maybe I did,” he taunts, “But I think you'd love me even if I couldn’t control minds.”</p>
<p>~a tale of love, evil, and superpowers~</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's a Big Mess Going on Outside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darksideofthescreen (carrotsandcurly)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrotsandcurly/gifts).



> WOW. OKAY. HERE'S THIS.  
> this is the longest thing i have ever written ever, also, so there's that.
> 
> i'd like to thank my beta, Nicole, and Roja, and anyone else who read through this and helped me along the way. the original prompt sure was a dosy, and I hoped I did it justice and that you enjoy it!

Louis awakes to the beeping. To be fair, he always awakes to the sound, so much that it almost shouldn’t work for him anymore. It does, regardless. He wakes up stiff, because Harry’s rolled on top of him in the middle of the night and is more or less crushing him with the entirety of his bodyweight.

“Oh my god,” Louis groans, trying to shove at him. “You’re gonna crush me.”

“No I’m not,” Harry says from above him, curling an arm tighter around his waist. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I can control my strength by now. Wouldn’t wanna go hurting you, eh sunshine?” He sounds sarcastic, but Louis knows that’s just his morning voice.

Once, Harry cried because Louis pretended like he got hurt. All of Harry’s thoughts were out of control with worry and Louis had burst with laughter. Harry hadn’t found it very funny, however. Big surprise there.

“Yes you are,” Louis repeats stubbornly.

“Nah,” Harry returns. The bastard. Louis can tell he’s smirking against his skin.

“You little fucker-,” Louis starts to say, but a chorus of groans interrupt him.

“Shut up. Just shut up. Can we have one morning where the guards don’t have to come in and tell you two off? ‘Cause it’s gonna happen if you don’t shut up,” Zayn snaps. Or, Zayn’s voice snaps. He sort of does the whole invisibility thing when he’s asleep. They’ve all grown used to it.

“Sorry, lads,” Harry says, voice rumbling from above him. The beeping stops, which means they have approximately five minutes before the second alarm goes off. After that one stops, they’re fucked. So Louis knows it’s in their best interest to get going. Harry’s thinking the same thing, almost to the exact words, and slides off the bed after that, padding to the bathroom.

It used to freak Louis out that their thoughts were in sync at moments like this, but not anymore.

Zayn’s appeared again, and Liam’s up sliding on his work pants. Niall is still in bed, so Louis walks over and plops down in the tiny twin bed beside him, big spooning him because Harry never lets him do that anymore.

“Hi Nialler,” Louis coos into his neck, and Niall makes an incoherent noise.

“I’ll take that as a good morning,” Louis continues. Niall’s thoughts are mostly clouded and lame, which means he’s still half asleep, so Louis kicks him in the side a few times to wake him up. Now Niall’s thoughts are mostly all mostly, _I hate Louis, I hate Louis, I hate Louis._

“Hey now,” Louis pouts, wiggling up against him, “That’s just rude.” he insists, and Niall groans, this time elbowing Louis in the ribs before sliding out of bed. Louis acts like he’s been fatally wounded, rolling off of bed into a pile on the ground, coughing and fake spluttering up blood.

“The MGA got me, lads, go on without me,” he says through his fake coughs, and four sets of eyes turn to glare at him. They’re all thinking not very nice thoughts. Louis wonders if they forget about the whole mind-reading thing sometimes.

“Louis. That’s not funny.”

“Be quiet, you’re gonna get all of our asses kicked.”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Save it for the orchard, sunshine.”

The last voice is Harry’s from the restroom, and Louis smiles at just the sound of his voice and shuts up so the boys won’t kill him. The truth is the security cameras aren’t supposed to come on until the second bell rings. Sometimes though, rules aren’t always followed. Louis knows firsthand that if you make the rules, you can break them.

The guys are all dressed by the time Louis actually stands up, and then he’s walking towards his clothes when the second bell rings. Two minute warning. Everyone looked at Louis with these worried eyes, and Louis hated it, honestly, when they looked at him like that. He was capable of getting dressed in two minutes, okay.

“Go on without me. I’ll catch up,” Louis insists. Liam frowns, and Harry frowns harder, if that’s even possible.

“I’m serious,” Louis says quickly, running a hand up his face, “Go. Get going. I’ll be there in a minute,” he continued, and surprisingly, they nodded slowly, filing out one by one. Harry’s last, and pulls him in for a short kiss on the cheek. With the cameras officially on, it’s a no go for the kind of interaction they have at night, or at the orchard.

“Be fast, Lou. I’m serious,” Harry ducks to whisper in his ear, gives his hip a squeeze and jogs after Niall to breakfast. He only uses his name when he being serious, Louis knows, so he actually starts changing really quickly when he hears footsteps.

“Harry, good god, I was just about to leave,” he starts to say, rolling his eyes, but stops in his tracks.

“Hi, Louis,” the girl says. Definitely not Harry. It takes Louis a moment, but after blinking for a moment or two, everything clicks into place.

“Lottie,” he deadpans, in honest-to-god shock. “What in bloody hell are you doing here?” She’s different than the last time he saw her, obviously, seeing as she was around three or four in human years.

“I’m here to tell you that we have a plan,” she says, voice low. They have thirty seconds, Louis suddenly realizes, before the beeping stops and they’ll be in trouble. Or, well. Louis would get in trouble for being in the dorms after the second bell, but he’ll probably get skinned alive for talking to Lottie.

How did she even get here?

Louis tries to read her thoughts, but realizes desperately he can’t. They’re blocked somehow.

“Lottie,” he starts to say, but she cuts him off.

“The MGA has taken everything, Louis. But we have a plan, and I need your help,” she sounds desperate, and Louis, for the first time, feels his heart ache. He didn’t know it could do that. For a moment, her thoughts become clear, and all he hears is _Please, please, please_ , and god, okay, he has to help her, he has to help her.

But he can’t. How the fuck is he supposed to help her, what, overthrow the government? Kill off the MGA? She’s gotta be mental or a spy or something of that sorts, Simon trying to trick him into rebelling so he can finally kill him off for good.

“You need to go, Lottie, this isn’t safe,” he finally says firmly, after a good ten seconds of internal debate.

And then, everything around them freezes. Time stopper. Of course she is. The beeping stops, everything stops, it’s just the two of them in this world, for probably thirty more seconds.

“Louis,” she repeats, sounding frustrated, “I need you to help me. We can’t do this without you. Tell me you will,” she continues, keeping her voice all calm and collected.

“I-,” he begins,

“Louis,” she snaps, obviously frustrated, “Tell me you will.”

“Okay, yeah, I will. I’ll help,” he says quickly, fists clenched at his sides.

“Good,” she says, smoothing her hands down her jumpsuit, and for the first time, Louis realizes she has a full head of hair. Which is weird. She doesn’t have the standard shaved head that every member of the MGA army is supposed to have.

Then, out of nowhere, the beeping continues and Louis, with a look of horror, realizes he has five seconds to get out of here and to breakfast before his ass gets beaten.

“I’ll see you soon, big brother,” Lottie chirps, and then Louis blinks and she’s gone, and the beeping has stopped again, but not because she stopped time. But because he ran out of time. He’s so, incredibly, fucked.

~

“Louis, is this not the second time in the past week that you have not made it to breakfast on time?”

“Yes,” he answers, voice strained.

“Are your band of boys already at breakfast?” The woman asks, looking bored.

“Yes,” he repeats, swallowing hard. “I told them to go. I just got distracted, ma’am, I’m really sorry.”

The woman hums, like she doesn’t believe him, and writes something down on her clipboard.

“Alright, then. That’s your second strike. I do not want to see you back here if you get a third one, you hear?” She snaps, narrowing her eyes, and Louis nods, quick and helplessly. She looks intimidating, but all of her thoughts are boring and dull.

“I hear,” Louis replies, half sarcastically. The lady scoffs and walks off, which means he’s safe to find the boys for the last half of breakfast. He’s the only one walking down the hallway, and all the cameras turn and point to him as he keeps his posture as straight as possible when he pushes open the doors to where everyone’s eating.

Harry sees him first, their eyes meeting from across the room, and he looks so frustrated and upset that Louis almost wants to go grab his food and sit at a different table. But instead he follows protocol, gets a plate full of food, and heads to sit next to Niall at their normal table in the corner. Harry’s hand reaches out to touch him instantly, and their eyes are all concerned.

“That’s your second strike, Lou,” Liam says worriedly. He’s always worrying, god.

“It’s my second strike and the trimester starts over tomorrow, Lima,” Louis says dismissively.

“Unless I miss the second bell today, which is kinda impossible, I’m fine”

Harry’s still frowning, but Louis ignores him in favor of the white stuff on his plate that looks anything but good. He focuses in on Harry’s thoughts while he eats, letting them lull him like a radio station for white noise.

_I just want to protect him. I want to make sure he’s safe. He’s not as strong as he thinks he is._

Hm. Sweet, but Louis will get him for that later. He’s gonna be fine. He’ll tell them about Lottie when they go to the orchard, everything will be dandy, life will be settled, etc.

“You should be more careful,” Harry’s actual voice interrupts his thoughts, and when Louis looks up at him, he sees a flash of something in his eyes. A warning. He’s gripping the table so tight that it might break, so Louis nudges his hand a little and gives him a warm smile.

“Hey, I’m still here, right? Still alive. I’m good. You don’t need to worry about me, darling,” Louis drawls, just to get a smile out of him. It doesn’t work.

“Lou. I’m being serious. This isn’t a joke to anyone but you. You’re gonna get yourself killed, or hurt, and you’re being really fucking selfish right now. You matter to me. To all of us. And when you’re so careless like that, it doesn’t just put you in danger, it puts me in danger, too.” Harry’s voice is so low that Louis can barely hear it and it makes shivers go down his spine and gives him tingles in his stomach.

“Okay,” he finally breathes, fingers digging into Harry’s palm so tight it’ll probably leave a mark. “Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.” He says, then thinks harder than he ever has to get the message across in Harry’s brain, too.

_Something happened. It’s big. I’ll tell you after breakfast._

Harry’s eyes flash again and then they’re staring at each other, eye contact so intense and deep that people walking by do a double take. Louis knows it got through, when Harry nods slightly and then pulls his hands away and starts talking to Niall like nothing ever happened.

And that’s when Louis hears the screaming.

“Get off me! Get off me! Louis!” It’s a girl, younger, and then Louis’ mind flashes back to Lottie earlier this morning and he fucking gets up so fast, that not even Niall has time to use his powers to drag him back down.

Everyone’s turned around at this point, watching the guards drag Lottie out to the center of the room, and then Louis stops. It’s not Lottie. Or, it is, but a MGA version. She’s got the shaved head and the required outfit and there’s no danger in her eyes, just pure terror. Louis briefly wonders if he hallucinated this morning, but then Lottie looks at him, fucking winks, and goes back to her screaming.

He’s never been so confused.

It’s not the first time someone’s been dragged for public humiliation, and it won’t be the last. But the fact that it’s his sister makes him go a little fucking crazy. All family was to be separated at birth. The MGA didn’t want any family ties or connections, but Louis had never been one to follow rules, even at a young age. He had been six when Lottie was born and wandered into the nursing room, and saw his birth mother nursing her.

Six years later they met again. She was in an entirely different program, but they realized they were siblings pretty fast. They snuck around meeting each other for a while before getting caught, getting two strikes on them and beatings for the next two weeks to follow. But it was worth it.

The last time he saw her, he was seventeen and she had been getting escorted out of the building by a guard. She turned and saw him, looked pleading and desperate, but Louis hadn’t done anything to help, didn’t know how. This moment was almost identical the one going on in front of him, except it all almost seemed like an act.

Despite this, he found himself running.

“Get off her! Get off her!” He’s shouting, but there’s suddenly a lot more guards then he thought and a lot more shouting when you’re up close, and he can hear Harry’s frantic voice when he’s slammed into the ground by a guard easily three times his size.

“Let go of him, he didn’t do anything wrong!” Harry’s screaming, and suddenly the whole room is talking, watching, sharing their opinions, but all Louis can focus on is Lottie staring at him, her eyes wide, surprised.

“He interfered with punishments, that’s automatically two strikes against you,” the guard replies calmly, and Louis tries to break free, but he’s not exactly superhuman like Harry, who is watching on helplessly, obviously wanting to do something, but he knows better.

Louis always knew he’d get three strikes someday. He definitely didn’t expect to get four.

The chaos doesn’t settle down when the guard starts dragging him along like some sort of dead body, and he can taste blood on his lips from the impact and he’s truly unsure of what’s to come until he realizes they’re still dragging him, now just out the door.

“Fuck,” he says, when he hears the door slam behind them, closing his eyes. He’s so fucked. So, incredibly fucked.

“You fell for it,” Lottie whispers, her voice soft. Louis’ head whips to the side and he sees not one, but two Lottie’s. One is the MGA version of her, shaved head and all, lying on the ground. The other is the Lottie he saw earlier this morning, long hair, outfit strange and unusual.

“What are you talking about? Fell for what? My sister getting beaten to a pulp in front of everyone?” He asked, almost irritated, but mostly just confused. He has no fucking clue where the guards are.

“They were testing you, Louis, are you an idiot? Are you seriously telling me that you’re oblivious to the fact you’re always being followed, and called out? That they set you up!” Long-haired Lottie snaps, and time is frozen, he reminds himself, that’s why the guards are allowing this to happen.

He starts to speak again, but she keeps talking, frustration evident in her voice. “You’re a test subject to them. That’s why you get in trouble more than any of your other little friends, because the cameras are always on you. They’re going to use you for the next attack if you get three strikes. Which is why I need your help. To stop them.”

That’s a whole lot of information in one go, but while she talks, Louis realizes it makes a lot of sense. That’s why he’s always getting so close to three strikes. That’s why he’s always felt like he had an extra pair of eyes on him, more than the others. It all connects together.

“Well. It’s a bit too late now, seeing as I have four strikes right now,” Louis spits out bitterly, unsure where this sudden attitude came from. Lottie rolls her eyes, but just as quick as she does so, she vanishes.

What the fuck. How many fucking powers does this kid have? As soon as she’s gone, time keeps going on, and he’s immediately slammed back down to the ground by a guard. From beside him, MGA Lottie gets the same treatment.

“You’ll be getting talked to by Mr. Cowell,” the guard says, voice low and rumbly. “Four strikes. What a shame. And the trimester ended tomorrow,” he continues, all fake sympathy shit. Louis wants to hit him. Before he can do that, though, he’s being dragged to his feet, where he gets led down the hall.

Time freezes again. Long-Haired Lottie reappears, this time looking rather smug. She’s not alone this time, either. “This is our sister,” she says, and a smaller girl waves and smiles. She has long hair, too, he notes. “She has the power to erase minds. Not totally, just certain events. So she’s erasing this event from the mind of all these guards. This is a one-time thing, though. She can’t do it every time,” long-haired Lottie continues.

Louis blinks as the younger girl steps forward, looks in the eyes of all the frozen guards, and then steps back. Apparently, the deed is done.

“I’m still confused,” Louis says slowly, blinking at the two girls in front of them, and Lottie sighs.

“Of course you are. According to them, the past fifteen minutes didn’t happen. You can go back in,finish breakfast and still have two strikes on you. Don’t fucking fall for anything until tomorrow when the trimester starts over. I’ll tell you the whole plan tomorrow. Don’t fuck up anymore, yeah?” She snaps, eyes narrowing.

“Okay, but fuck, wait. Am I the only one they’re following? Why me?” He asks before she can vanish again, but Lottie just looks at him and shrugs.

“There are others, but they’re not as sought after. Apparently you’re the one they want. Don’t ask me, I’m just here to make sure they don’t start another war,” she says smoothly, then adds, “Now go.”

And Louis goes. He gets the fuck out of there, for sure.

~

Despite erasing the minds of the guards, Lottie sure as hell does not erase the mind of the rest of the room. All eyes are on him when he walks back through the door, including, of course, the very love of his life.

He tries to act casual as he walks back to the table, with Harry tracking his every move, but he knows his nose is bleeding and he must not look very attractive at the moment.

“Are you fucking insane?” Harry asks when he sits back down. The others stare at him in awe.

“Mm, let me think about that. No,” he replies, continues eating his oatmeal, wanting to do so in peace, thank you very much.

“You just- and now you’re- here. But you just. And that was totally-,” Niall starts, but Harry flashes him a look that says don’t talk about it.

“We’ll deal with this later. For now, someone fucking strap you to me or something so that you don’t get into more trouble,” Harry snaps, and he looks angry. Louis seen him angry before, sure, but it’s never directed towards Louis.

He’s too distracted and stressed to try and read Harry’s thoughts, so he doesn’t bother, instead keeps quiet and eats with hundreds of pairs of eyes watching him do so.

They all finish eating in silence until the breakfast bell rings, and they all automatically get up. Louis goes to head for a training he has with Lou, but Harry’s hand on the back of his shoulder settles him.

“Fifteen minutes, yeah?” Harry says, voice soft in his ear, and Louis nods before wiggling out of his grasp and heading to training, doing his best to keep his head down and look like everybody else in the crowd, even if he feels even more like an outsider than usual.

~

“What the hell are you talking about?” Harry asks approximately twenty minutes later. They’re away from the cameras and the microphones, safe for now, in the back orchard where no one looks or cares about. Their secret hide-away.

Whenever they’re up in the orchard, Louis gets strangely nostalgic about it all, how they met when they were kids and put into the same training group and eventually realized that their feelings for each other went beyond the causal friend thing. Though relationships were strictly off limits, they kept things on the down low so they wouldn’t get caught.

God knows that would be worth three strikes right there.

Kissing Harry, though, is like another sense itself. Harry’s very hands-on, touching his waist and his back and his bum, licking into his mouth like there isn’t a scary, life-controlling government inside that building. But after five minutes of aggressively making out, Louis pulled back and told him the whole story. Obviously, Harry didn’t seem to quite get it.

“I know it sounds strange,” Louis soothes, from his position on top of him, their foreheads pressed together. “But, like. She came to me in the room after you guys left. And she’s my sister. Sorry I never told you about her. It just. It seemed better to keep it my secret, y’know?” Louis shrugs, trying to defend his actions, but Harry still seems hurt that he kept such a big thing from him.  “And she told me she had a plan, and that she needed my help, and that’d she get in contact with me – all of us – later.”

“You’re sure she’s not just set up by the MGA?” Harry interrupts frowning. Louis shushes him and frowns harder. If that’s even possible.

“Yes, okay, because then she was getting beat up in the middle of the commons, and I went to save her, obviously, and as soon as they dragged us out, there was two of her. I’m not kidding, here, Haz, there was two of her, and she stopped time, right, that’s her thing, and then she had this other girl with her, who I guess is also my sister, and her thing is mind erasing! Crazy, right? And so she erased the minds of the guards just of the last fifteen minutes,” Louis rambles, pushing himself up onto Harry’s lap to further the effect of the story.

“And then, here’s where it gets good. She tells me that I’m like, this important person. I’m like, someone they’ve been following and testing on since I was a kid. That’s why I’m always getting in trouble and almost getting three strikes. They’re waiting until I get kicked out so they can put me in their army for some reason! I have no idea why I’m some chosen one. But apparently, the MGA’s army is just out to kill the rest of society. So we have to stop it, H.”

He finishes, and Harry stares at him blankly, as if he didn’t hear a thing.

“Lou,” he says carefully, lovingly, “Lou, love, have you gotten water today? Did you sleep last night? Are you feeling ill?” He asks, and Louis groans, slapping his hand against his forehead.

“Harry, babe, I’m fine. This all really happened. I’m some weird chosen one, or something, and we’re gonna take down the whole fucking MGA!” Louis shouts excitedly, can’t see why Harry isn’t excited, too.

“You’re being ridiculous,” Harry says softly, obviously trying to be nice about the whole thing, but it’s not working out for him. “You can’t- Lou, you can’t take down the entire Modest Government Association. That’s just not possible, not with just five people.”

“But it’s not just five people, Harry! Don’t you get that? It’s us five, and Lottie, and she’s gotta have other people working for her, too, right? She can’t be doing this alone!”

“Okay,” Harry finally stops him with a hand on his chest, another against his lips. “Okay. I get it. And you know I’d do anything for you. But how the fuck are we going to do this?” He whispers, and if Louis didn’t know any better, he’d think he was scared.

Harry. Harry, who can probably lift up literal tons of weight, is scared of taking down the association that has kept them in a headlock all their lives.

“We’ve always talked about what else is out there, H. Don’t you see that this is our chance to find out? If I get three strikes, they’re putting me in their army, and I won’t come back,” Louis starts, voice sharp, almost in a warning tone.

“That’s why they’ve been training us all this time. And I’m the bloody test subject. Or one of the test subjects. They train us until we fuck up and then they put the fuck ups in an army to kill what’s outside the fence. And they’ve been trying to get me to fuck up the most. Heaven knows why I’m the lucky one. But I am. And we can’t fucking take them down without you,” he breathes out a nervous little laugh, stroking a hand down Harry’s chest, before pressing a kiss to his mouth. “So. Are you in?”

Harry’s deathly quiet for a while after that, just staring up at him, fingers making their way down to his waist, holding him, grip tight but nothing Louis can’t handle. It feels like hours later before Harry slowly nods, and Louis lets out a sigh of relief.

“Of course I’m in. This sister of yours better have a plan, though,” he mumbled, but it’s lost on his lips when they start kissing again, hot and sweet and desperate, before they hear the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Both their heads whip back, and Louis is relieved to find Lottie standing in front of them (long-haired Lottie, this time) before she’s plopping onto her bum beside him, ignoring the fact they were just heavily making out.

“Hi. Nice to meet you in person,” Lottie chirps. Harry blinks, looking confused.

“In person--?” He starts to say, but Lottie cuts him off.

“You told him, I presume, about everything?” She starts, raising an eyebrow. Louis nods.

Harry’s not so subtly staring at her hair. Louis thinks he’s secretly jealous of it.

“Uh, yeah, basically,” Louis shrugs, sliding off Harry’s lap to make this slightly less awkward.

Lottie just grins. “Brilliant.It’s plan time, boys. Get your listening ears on.”

~

The plan, apparently, starts the very next day. Which, you know, makes sense with the end of the trimester and all,  - fresh start, new beginnings and all that. Louis awakes in a very similar way that he did the morning before, to the first bell.

Technically though, he didn’t sleep. No, he was much too excited and nervous for that. Instead, he drifted in and out of sleep all night, which probably wasn’t the best choice for a day literally stock full of shit, but he knew the second he was conscious that he was not the only one having sleeping troubles.

Harry, for starters, of course. He’s beneath him and breathing hard, his fingers tight around Louis’ waist, and Louis knows he’s nervous, because Harry’s the strongest guy he knows, emotionally and physically, but that doesn’t make him immune to fear.

“Morning sunshine,” Harry’s voice in his ear shakes him from his thoughts, and Louis smiles into his neck, before he’s shifting off the bed and onto his feet.

“Morning, love of my life,” Louis sings in response as he gets dressed as quickly as possible, glancing over at the others who are shifting out of bed, too.

Louis had told them the night before during dinner, slowly but causally transporting each step of the plan into their heads. It took a while because if Louis was too obvious about it, he could get caught, so he had to be careful.

The cameras and microphones go off as soon as they’re locked in their rooms for the night. No one really knows why, but it’s sure convenient for Louis and Harry, who use this time to sleep together. Not like, actually sleep together, though they do that too, but simply sleeping on top of each other is better than sleeping in the twin beds alone.

“Everyone’s ready to rumble, yeah? Zayn, you’re looking extra invisible today, I must say,” Louis teases, and Zayn grunts in response from somewhere in the room.

“You’re sure this is gonna work, Lou?” Niall asks, sounding uneasy as he buttons up his shirt.

He looks nervous. Louis is, too, but he doesn’t show it around his boys.

“’Course. We’re getting out of here, boys. And it all starts with causing a little trouble.”

~

Lottie had said do whatever you can to distract the guards.

Louis figured they might as well go out with a bang, right?

~

Louis and Harry are in the middle of the cafeteria during breakfast. Zayn is invisible and has Niall’s with him, standing by the doors.

“You’re sure this is what we should do?” Harry whispers uneasily. They’re really gonna do this.

“Yeah. I’m sure,” Louis insists, and then they’re kissing .Flat-out kissing. Like, making out in the rain, we haven’t seen each other in ten years kissing. In front of their entire age group. It’s easily the best kiss Louis’ ever had, honestly, and he couldn’t be happier.

The guards are on them in a second, of course, every camera, every microphone in the entire building directed towards them, which is, of course, dutifully part of the plan. Somewhere, Lottie’s shaking her head fondly.

They’re not kissing for very long, because the guards that seemed miles away seconds ago are now dragging them out into the hallway, but it’s okay because that’s when all the lights go off and Louis knows the deed is done.

With two quick punches, Harry’s got the guards down on the ground and with all the cameras now broken, they run in the general direction of the doors, sprinting until they’re out of breath and at the orchard where Lottie and Louis’ apparent other sister are waiting. It’s not long before Zayn, Niall and Liam show up, too.

They left the MGA a mess, and they probably don’t have much time until someone figures out how to get the cameras working, which in turn would get the lights back on, too, and the guards would find them.

“We’ll go out through the orchard and follow the fence to the end, I know it has an end,” Lottie explains, pointing in the general direction of the fence that borders them and the unknown.

“Actually,” Harry says shyly, clearing his throat as he jogs forward to the fence, “There’s kinda a hole? I found out about a few years ago?”

Louis’ jaw almost fucking drops. This kid. “You literally hid an escape from me?” He asks, horrified.

“No! Yes! Kind of! I was gonna suggest we run away together, eventually, someday, but I never knew what we’d do after that. But now we know,” Harry continues quickly, and stepping forward to lace their fingers together, squeezing tight.

_He’s kind of hot when he’s angry,_ Harry’s thoughts reveal. _Actually, scratch that. He’s really hot when he’s angry_.

So Louis forgives him, not because he’s a very forgiving man, but because of what he can read of Harry’s thoughts.

Louis can be very forgiving when he’s called hot, okay.

“Anyways,” Lottie says loudly, glaring at them. “Okay. I guess we’re climbing out of a hole, then. Thanks Harry. You made things ten times easier,” she says thoughtfully, tilting her head to the side. “Alright. Everyone out. Single file order, let’s go!”

~

Leaving the place they’ve grown up in isn’t the hard part. The hard part is the getting past the fence and realizing what’s behind it.

“Nothing. There’s nothing here,” Niall says blankly, blinking at the empty field.

“No, not nothing. We have to keep walking. There’s a place I know that exists,” Lottie insists, turning back to glare at him. Everyone has noticed her hair, Louis notes, but no one has decided to say anything, which is understandable. Lottie can be pretty intimidating.

“And what will we be doing there? Starving? Hiding from the MGA?” Liam asks, frowning.

“Neither of those things,” Lottie quips, raising an eyebrow. “You lot have to trust me. You do, Lou, right?” She turns to face him, and Louis, who is busy examining Harry’s bicep, looks up and nods. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you,” she continues blankly. Louis just nods again and goes back to focusing on Harry.

The walk, or the journey, he must say, takes what feels like hours. It's long, it's brutal, it's border-line abuse. It's hours of complaining though Louis does a majority of the whining. His feet hurt, okay. Luckily Harry takes one for the team and gives him a piggy back ridee for a good two hours just to shut him up. There's a lot of benefits to having a boyfriend with super human strength, after all.

Eventually, though, they make it. There's a huge building in front of them and a good amount of people all standing outside, almost as if they were expecting them.

They’re greeted by men, men with long hair, men with short hair, men who look happy. There’s no bored faces, no tired faces, no I-can’t-do-this-any-longer faces, and it’s quite refreshing.

“Come with us,” the first man says, smiles, and Harry squeezes his hand tight. It’s another rush of relief, to know he’s got a partner in crime throughout all of this.

They’re led inside. The interior if the building is different from the outside, colorful looking and warm. There’s comfortable-looking couches and more happy people there’s good energy and  loud talking. There’s no one trying to shush them, no one running around listing off rules, it’s very free and open and big.

Louis loves it immediately.

“We’ll be happy to help if you need anything, but for now, make yourself at home. Lauren will show you to the rooms, and I’m very sorry, but we do have a shortage of living space, so if anyone is willing to share-,”

“We will!” Harry says quickly raising his and Louis’ laced fingers together up in the air. A few people turn to look before resuming their conversations, and the woman who had been talking, Lauren, just laughs.

“Alright, then. Just follow me.”

They’re given a short tour of the building, where the cafeteria is, where the President’s office is, and they insist they’ll give a greater tour once they’re settled in.

“And here are the rooms!” She exclaims, opening a door. There’s a bed inside, and what looks to be a miniature kitchen, a couch, too. They all stare in awe.

“I’ve read about these,” Zayn says in awe, “Back before the disasters, this was normal.”

It didn’t seem very normal to Louis, but he just went along with it.

“The rooms are all connected. There’s five rooms, divide it up how you want. Dinner is served at around six, but we don’t clean up until eight so just drop by whenever you want. We’ll give you the night to rest, but tomorrow, be expected to be called up by our President,” Lauren chirps, smile still bright, genuine. “Hope you all have a good night!”

And with that, she closes the door.

“I wonder what the bell system is like here,” Liam says curiously. Louis hits him in the chest with his free hand.

“There’s no bell system, dimwit. She said we could have dinner whenever we wanted. Does that sound like a bell system to you?”

Liam’s thoughts say one thing, but the boy just shrugs and nods instead of replying.

“Right,” Lottie says, speaking up for the first time since they arrived. “Fizz and I are rooming up, too, since the lovebirds can’t seem to spend a night apart. I guess we should all meet up at dinner and try to make some friends, or whatever,” she shrugs, grabs Louis’ second sister by the hand, who has still yet to say a word, and they’re off to the second room.

This leaves the five boys all facing each other, a bit of uncertainty lingering among the room. They have no idea what they’re doing here, if this is safe, if they’ll get tracked down by the MGA, if they’ll end up regretting ever leaving.  All their thoughts are so loud that it starts to give Louis a headache. He can’t focus on all of them at once, and almost lets out an annoyed groan.

“I need a rest, I think. You’re all thinking too much,” Louis mumbles, and tugs on Harry’s hand to make him follow him to the second bedroom.

“We’ll call you when we head to dinner,” Niall says helpfully, and Louis gives a half-hearted nod before he’s closing the door and stumbling into the bed. It’s bigger than the ones at home, which means they won’t have to sleep directly on top of each other anymore. Though they probably will, anyway.

“Ngh,” Louis groans helplessly into the pillow, letting his body sink down into the cushion while the bed dips and Harry wraps himself around him, kissing slowly up his neck. Usually that makes him ticklish, but today, it’s relaxing.

“I think everything’s gonna work out,” Harry murmurs softly, big hands rubbing circles in his back. “I mean, I don’t know what the hell we’re doing here, or how your sister even found out about this place, but it’s nice, and the people have long hair and…. Lottie has long hair, which. I still don’t understand,” he laughs, shaking his head. Louis feels it rumble in his chest and it gives him butterflies.

“She hasn’t always been there.  I don’t know. It’s confusing. At the cafeteria incident yesterday, the Lottie that I went to save had the shaved cut. But when she froze time, the Lottie we have now was there, and the Lottie that was getting beat on the ground was, well, still  on the ground,” Louis tries to explain it, but it just makes his head hurt more.

“We can talk about it later,” Harry suggests kindly. Louis makes a noise in agreement, tips his head up to kiss him, and falls asleep almost instantly after-wards.

~

A few hours later, there’s three loud knocks on the door before Niall’s barging in. “We’re going to go grab some food and check the place out a bit, wanna come?” He offers, eyeing them tangled up together in bed,

“Sure,” Harry answers for both of them, as if he was the mind reader around here, and gently nudged Louis to get him to stand up. He did so, a tad bit reluctantly, and stretched up his arms while Harry guided him out the door, hands on his hips.

The halls are empty when they step outside since everyone’s at dinner, but there’s no one patrolling the halls, checking rooms, making sure every single person is in the dining hall. It’s oddly refreshing to just walk down an empty hallway with the boys and Lottie and his mystery sister.

“I never got your name,” Louis says, falling into step beside her. Mystery Sister blinks furiously and then starts walking faster, away from him.

“She doesn’t talk. Her name’s Felictie. I call her Fiz. She’s pretty shy,” Lottie fills him in quietly, and, yeah, he can kinda see that. Fiz is walking way ahead of them now, and is the first to push open the doors to where they’re supposed to eat. And It’s a surprisingly lit up room.

The dining hall at home was dark and depressing. But then again, everything made, produced, or owned by the MGA was dark and depressing.

Like the room they saw when they first came in, everyone’s talking and laughing as they walk in.

There’s a long cart of food set up and people are just grabbing plates and stacking up whatever food they want. It’s all food Louis has never seen, but it smells like heaven.

Louis is drawn to it, stumbling over his own feet to grab a plate and stock it up full. He’s not alone, seeing as they eat oatmeal three times a day.

They find a table large enough to fit seven, and there’s no talking for the first fifteen minutes as they garble down their food, then go up for seconds.

There’s no public humiliation or guards, just happy people eating good food and, huh. Louis thinks he could get used to this.

~

After dinner, when their stomachs are so full they can barely walk, they decide they’re too tired and stuffed to go exploring, and head up to bed. It seems like the building is mostly the same- connected bedrooms and little rooms where a bunch of young-looking people hang out, so there’s no use wasting energy and that.

Much like earlier, Louis falls into bed feeling warm and happy and Harry falls beside him. They forgot to talk and make friends while they were busy gorging themselves with food, but there’s time for that, Louis thinks.

“Just so we’re clear. I still feel good about this,” Harry mutters, and Louis just nods, kissing his jaw.

“I know. I’m sure we’ll get answers tomorrow. And that’s all I want, y’know? Answers. Why I’m so important to them. Why this place exists. How Lottie knew about it. If this is all a trap set up by the MGA and we’re all falling for it-,”

“Don’t talk like that,” Harry scolds gently, kissing his head. “We’re gonna be fine. This is gonna be fine.”

“Whatever you say, stud,” Louis murmurs, fond and for the second time that day, he falls asleep. And for the first time in a long time, he sleeps through the night.

~

In the morning, Lottie wakes them up to say they’re meeting with the President in five minutes. Her long hair is up, and Louis stares at it for a moment in his half-asleep daze, frowning.

“How do you have that?” He asks through a yawn, sitting up.

Lottie touches her hair, like she forgot how long it was, looks at him, and shrugs before walking out to get the others.

Louis doesn’t question it, though, just manages to get Harry up, too, so they can walk out together. He’s kinda nervous, he’s never met a President before -  they sound quite important - but he’s also aware that everyone here has been nice so there’s no way he’s not, like, not nice. Or kinda nice.

A lady who isn’t Lauren leads them this time, through the windy halls of talkative people.

They must eat breakfast later, seeing as no one seems to be in the dining hall when they pass.

As they approach a door, the lady knocks a few times then steps back.

“Mr. Azoff  will see you now,” she reports with a kind smile, and the door opens.

“Take a seat, all of you,” a man’s voice says, and they do what he says almost immediately, all scrambling to find a place to sit.

It’s silent for a minute before the man looks over them, nose slightly turned up, then speaks.

“So. Who’s the one that has a stronger mind than most of the MGA combined?” He finally muses, hands folded up in his desk. Louis blinks, hesitant, before Lottie rolls her eyes and nudges him.

“He’s the only mind reader at MGA who can force thoughts, not just read them,” Lottie pipes up, and the man nods, examining him. His eyes linger for so long, actually, that Harry’s grip on his hand gets tighter.

“You’re the one they told us about,” says Mr. Azoff nodding at Louis, who shrugs shyly, uncertain.

“You’re a very important piece in our plan, Louis. Welcome to Paradise. You should call me Irving. We’re going to train you to use your powers the correct way. To strengthen them. With you lot, we’ll be able to overthrow the MGA, not just run away from them. They’ll only grow stronger with time if we don’t do something,” Mr. Azoff, or Irving, continues, and Lottie had mentioned this, yeah, but Louis didn’t think it would happen so soon.

He figured they’d get time to relax that lasted longer than half a day, to enjoy not having cameras and microphones on them any second, but the battle was far from over.

“Where do you come from? Didn’t everyone get pulled into the government after the natural disasters started?” Liam wonders out loud curiously, tilting his head to the side.

Ivring just smiled sadly. He was an older man, and Louis noticed he had a shaved head like the rest of them. He wasn’t sure if that was purposeful or not. “That’s what they want you to think. That they saved you, when really, that’s far from it. After the disasters, most of us got away, like my parents. Your parents were the ones who got injected first, a test trial if you will.

“Then you lot were born and you were injected, too. They wanted to have a powerful, unconditional army that had no faults or cracks in the system. Obviously, everything didn’t work in their favor,” Mr. Azoff pauses to smile, almost lightheartedly, “The powers were disturbed at random, no matter what they tell you. Harry could have easily been the mind reader, whilst Louis had the strength. But sometimes it all works out for the best reasons.”

They all share a chuckle at that, and the tension in the air slowly bubbles away, despite the group learning everything they thought they knew was a lie.

“So what would have happened to me if I had got three strikes? They would have thrown me out into the army?” Louis asked slowly, after realizing that he hasn’t actually known of anyone who’s gotten three strikes. Just two, like himself, but never as frequently and often as himself.

“Kind of. They would have wiped your memory, most likely. Then you’d start training to fight, well. Us. The outsiders,” Ivring continues.

Louis frowns. “I thought we were always training to fight,” he says slowly, confusion written over his face.

“Not exactly. You were training, sure, but it was mostly busy work so you wouldn’t realize that you weren’t actually getting better at anything or learning how to strengthen your skills. It was so you wouldn’t get suspicious. Obviously, it doesn’t always work.”

This leaves Louis a bit dumbfounded, because of course. All the days spent training, training, training, training for a war he wasn’t sure would ever occur. The only people who seemed to question it were him and Harry, the other boys, too, but they just hadn’t showed it as much. Of course they were just trying to keep them busy while they were spied and tested on, meanwhile they should have been out here, learning how to work with what they were given with, their powers.

“Oh,” Louis finally says, as if defeated. Ivring smiles again, this time less sadly.

“We’re gonna get you all set on training as soon as possible. The sooner we can take the MGA down, the better. You’re all dismissed.” The old man’s smile quickly turned into a neutral expression, and the friendly eyes schooled into a poker face.

It’s not the first time Louis’ been tricked into thinking everything was okay and good and well. He’s sure it won’t be the last.

~

Training, as it turns out, starts right away. When Ivring said ASAP, he really meant, ASAP.

Harry, Liam and Niall, since they have physical powers, are sent off to one room, while Louis, Zayn, Lottie and Fizz are sent down another. Their powers fall under mental abilities, which causes for different types of training.

At home, they all just learned to throw swords and beat people up, nothing specific to your certain power.  The powers were hardly even mentioned, to be honest. Like an elephant in the room, the guards and leaders overlooking them as if they were a weakness instead of a strength.

They walk until they end up in a large, open room with a lot of people, and there’s a man standing on a stage speaking to all of them.

“Mind powers, despite what anyone else tells you, are important. They’re game changers. You guys are the future, the reason we can do anything. You’re not just in the background,” the man is saying.

Everyone is nodding and listening to him as if every word he’s speaking is the most valuable piece of advice they could receive.

“Now,” he says, looking amongst the crowd, “Do we have any teleporters?”  He asks, raising an eyebrow. A few hands go up. “Mental healers?” More hands. “Truth detection?” A few more hands.”How about mind readers?” Louis isn’t surprised that he’s not the only one that raises his hand.

He is, however, surprised, when the man looks directly at him. “Mind controllers?” He asks. The previous hands that were up go down, and Louis’ stays up.

“Ah,” the man says, and smiles. “We’ll be having some fun today, ladies and gents.”

~

The first day of mental powers for them is relatively easy. They all get put in different groups and are to (carefully) practice on each other, their own individual power.

Louis, however, gets pulled aside by the man.

“My name’s Nick,” he says, holding a hand out to shake, “And it’s very nice to meet you. I’m sure our President has told you about the wonders of your power, hm?”

“Kinda,” Louis shrugs, feeling a little embarrassed about it, “I don’t really see how I’m such a big step in the equation though.”

“Oh, but you are,” Nick interjects, raising an eyebrow, “I’m assuming you’ve figured out mind control on your own, but you probably don’t know how to work it properly. Here, we’re gonna teach you how to force a thought into someone’s head without having to make direct eye contact the entire time. And, with a little practice, you won’t only be able to force them to think it, they’ll believe it, too.”

That’s just. A lot to take in.

“I mean. With that kinda power I could just force them to shut down the entire MGA, right? Is it that simple?” Louis asks, voice laced with confusion.

“It’ll be very dangerous, of course, but you’ll have the back-uping of your team, so I think you’ll be alright,” Nick says reasonably, shrugging. “Here, now. Practice on me. I reckon you’re pretty good at reading thoughts by now, but force me to think something about you.”  If Louis didn’t know any better, he’d say this was flirting, but he doesn’t think too much about it.

“Okay,” Louis says, clapping his hands together, thinking. Then he’s staring up at Nick, face scrunched together.

It’s not long before the man starts laughing. “You have a boyfriend named Harry. Got it,” he replies, voice amused. “On to the next one.”

~

In the following weeks, Louis learns more about himself then he has in quite a long time. He learns how to force a thought with one simple look, how, by looking at a spot on the wall, he can calm down all the thoughts in a crowded room, something he’s always just dealt with. It makes his headaches go away almost completely, and it’s incredible the kind of mood-changer that can be.

While Louis is busy learning how to force thoughts and make the recipient believe it, too, the others are busy at work. Liam is controlling his shapeshifting abilities, Zayn doesn’t turn invisible when he sleeps anymore, Niall knows how to control his speed, and Lottie becomes creepily excellent at time freezing.

The fact Fizz can erase someone’s short term memory kind of freaks him out, especially considering she doesn’t speak. He often feels she’s way more powerful and valuable than himself, though he supposed being able to force someone to think anything is kind of useful.

Just a bit, though.

And Harry’s been, well. Harry. He’s always had good control over his strength, taught himself how not to hurt people when he’s just touching them causally, and so now his main focus is on how to actually hurt someone, much to his dismay.

“We can’t defeat anyone without your strength, H,” Louis reminds him quietly while they’re lying in bed one night. They’re facing each other tonight, wrapped in each others’ bodies and closing their eyes, breathing the other one in.

“I know,” Harry says, and his voice is even softer. “But we can’t do anything without you either. You’re some big hot shot now, eh? Big mind controller. Bet you’re gonna force me to love you,” he teases, to change the subject from the scariness that is real life. Louis would know. He can read his mind.

“You already love me,” Louis snorts, shaking his head.

“How do I know that wasn’t one of your weird mind control things? Maybe you’re forcing me into a love spell,” Harry continues, and he’s trying to make him smile. It’s working.

“Maybe I did,” he taunts, “But I think you’d love me even if I couldn’t control minds.”

So they keep on training, and this time, they’re training with purpose, with a goal in mind, and training alongside a hundred or so of others who have escaped over time from MGA. There’s no secrets, there’s no bell schedules, there’s no strikes or punishments, there’s just a dark sense of fear knowing someday soon they’re going to be done with their training, ready to fight.

They’re all talking one afternoon, the seven of them minus Fiz, who doesn’t say a word, when it’s mentioned - the elephant in the room.

“What’s gonna happen after we defeat them? Does anyone actually know the plan?” Zayn quips, folding his hands up in his lap, leaning forward.

“I mean, I guess we start over. Live here, build new homes without the MGA looming over us. I think it’ll be really easy. Really relaxing,” Lottie muses thoughtfully, shrugging.

“But plan wise? Like what, we all go in there and kick their asses? I force them to surrender and then Harry beats them up?” Louis asks, raising an eyebrow. He knows, realistically, Lottie doesn’t have all the answers, but he wants to know anyway.

“I think we’re in good hands, Lou,” Lottie says gently, obviously trying to soothe whatever nerves he had up in his crazy, catastrophic mind.

“I’ll protect you if we aren’t,” Harry replies boldly, and everyone laughs, but Louis knows Harry’s serious, that, if it came down to it, he’d die for him in a heartbeat.

He kisses him to let him know he gets that he’s serious, and he’d totally die for him, too.

~

The Day that has been highly anticipated for weeks happens when they’re least expecting it.

Liam has been shapeshifting into different bodies for hours and they’ve all been having a good laugh about it when the lights go off, turn back on, then blink a few times. Everyone in the room freezes, and Louis feels his blood go cold as Harry’s hand on his hip tightens.

“This is it,” Fiz says causally, as if it’s not just the first words Louis has ever heard her say, ever.

“You just talked,” Louis replies, while everyone starts evacuating out to the front, where Nick is guiding everyone out, showing the way.

“I did, yeah,” Fizz replies in the midst of all the chaos, and Louis is too distracted by getting tugged to the front of the group by Nick to really catch it. Harry follows, ‘cause duh, and by the time they’re outside, Louis realizes it’s night time.

“We’re gonna attack them in the middle of the night?” Louis asks, incredulous.

“You wanna attack in broad daylight?” Nick replies, quirking an eyebrow. Harry’s grip tightens, and Nick smiles. “Ah. Harry the Boyfriend, correct?” He laughs, and Louis nods, not really in the mood to smile along with him. He’s scared, okay. Everyone’s counting on him to do this great thing but he’s not even sure if he can do it.

“What the fuck are we doing, Nick? Are we just going to barge in there? Where do I play in?” Louis demands, watching as everyone piles out into the front, eyes narrowed.

“Alright, alright, relax. Everyone with a physical power is charging in there. It’s more of a distraction than anything. They can break shit, do whatever they want. All you have to know is that you’re going to be face-to-face with Mr. Cowell. Zayn’s going to be invisible behind you, Liam’s going shapeshift to match a guard, and Harry will be right there if you need backup. Lottie can freeze time if you need it, really. You shouldn’t have anything to worry about,” Nick explains, shrugging, like this is normal news, like attacking and breaking down the MGA is normal, everyday shit for him.

“What the fuck do I force him to think?” Louis tries to ask calmly, but he’s borderline hysterical.

“That, my love, is up to you,” Nick quips. Harry scowls. “Sorry, sorry. Pal, I mean. We’ve taught you for weeks now on what to do; you’ll know when you get up there. After he’s taken care of, Harry will do the honors of taking him out.”

“You mean, like killing him?” Harry says, now properly frowning.

“Yeah, like killing. There’s going be a lot of ‘like killing’ in this, mate, sorry to break it to you,” Nick snips, and he starts to walk away, but Harry stops him.

“I’m not going to kill anyone. Not even Simon. That’s, like. Not me, y’know? I’m not like that. Why can’t Louis force him to surrender? He’d basically be innocent then, right?” Harry continues, he’s demanding, sounding angry, and Nick looks a bit surprised.

“There are few things that are non-negotiable. This is one of them. Do as you’re told. Now come on, we’re running out of darkness” Nick says firmly after a beat of tense silence, and there’s nothing they can do.

Except, of course, there is.

~

It’s a longer walk than Louis remembers. Maybe because it’s dark and there’s a mob of people with them, but it feels dreadful, every step hurting his feet more and more until he’s complaining so much that Harry hoists him up on to his back to let his feet have a rest.

“I’m scared,” Louis admits when it feels like they’ve been out here for hours. He’s still clinging to Harry’s back, face tucked into his hair that has grown out in the past few weeks. Louis hasn’t even really realized that his has grown, too. Everyone’s has. Harry’s is curly and it’s the best thing in the entire world to stick his hands into.

“I know. But you don’t need to be. We’ve got it figured out, sunshine. Liam’s form as a guard will get us into Simon’s office, Zayn’s invisibility will turn off all the cameras, Lottie can stop time if you need a little breather, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you. Promise.” Harry mumbles in response, turning his head up to kiss his jaw. It’s a promise Louis knows he plans on keeping. He holds him to it.

When the MGA building is in sight, Harry slowly lowers Louis off his back and onto his feet instead and laces their fingers together tightly

“Welcome to organized chaos,” a voice over a loudspeaker starts, the President, Louis recognizes pretty quickly. “You know your role in this. You’ve been training for this. All of these weeks and months and years were the hard part. This is the easy part. We believe in a better future, and you all are about to give us that. Now go on. Get your lives back!”

The running begins. They’re not going in until later, so they all step aside. Louis grips Harry’s hand so tight he’s sure it’ll fall off.

“If we kill him, we’re no better than them,” Louis whispers helplessly into his ear.

“We’re not going to kill him,” Harry replies calmly, making eye contact with Nick who nods. It’s time. They’re going in.

~

Niall speeds them ahead so they don’t have to weave through the literal mess of what the MGA has become. Everyone who was still part of it are being told to run. Guards are getting bruised and beaten, hurt.

Louis tries not to think about it as they’re getting rushed by to Simon’s office.

“Here it is,” Niall says and Liam’s already changed forms, Zayn’s invisible, and Harry’s knocking down the door. Louis is absolutely terrified as they step inside, Liam and Niall stay out to guard the hallway, while Zayn is going to break the cameras. Meanwhile Lottie and Fiz linger in the doorway in case they’re needed.

There, sitting at his desk, is Simon. He’s watching the security cameras and only barely looks up when the door breaks down. He smiles when he sees Louis in the front, trying not to shake.

“Ah. You’re the runaways from earlier,” Simon spoke, slowly rising to his feet. Louis swallows hard, nods. “I suppose now you’re going to kill me, huh?”

“No,” Louis says firmly, licking his lips, “No. Then we’d be just as bad as you; killing people, forcing them into armies to fight. It’s not fair. It’s not right.”

“Oh?” Simon says, raising an eyebrow. “Your friends are all currently beating my guards to death. That doesn’t seem unfair to you?”

“We have no part in that,” Harry snaps suddenly, stepping up. “We’re just here to shut you down. To make sure you don’t hurt anyone else. We can’t control what they do.”

“You’re the mind controller, Louis,” Simon continues, as if Harry didn’t speak, “Shouldn’t you control them? Control them not to hurt anyone?”

“Your stupid guards hurt people enough as it is!” Louis returns, face scrunched up into a scowl. He doesn’t work well under pressure, when he’s frustrated or mad or upset.

“Ah, so they have. But does hurting someone mean they should get hurt in response?” Simon muses, looking like he’s enjoying himself.

Louis tries to focus on a spot on the wall, but he can’t. He just grows more frustrated, and he’s about to burst into tears when Simon freezes and Harry freezes and Lottie’s in front of him, frowning at him.

“You need to calm down,” she says firmly, hands on his shoulders. “Stop letting him get to you. You can do this. You know how to do this.”

“What if I can’t?” Louis whispers, voice cracking, cheeks pale.

“You can. I’ve seen you do it before, and you can do it now. Make him believe he’s wrong - morally wrong, because he is. You can do this, Lou. Take a deep breath. Count to ten. Then you’re on your own again,” Lottie gives him the biggest smile she can muster, slaps him on the back, and when Louis closes his eyes and finishes counting to ten, she’s gone, and time has resumed.

“No. It doesn’t,” Louis says after a beat, staring at Simon’s nose so not to make direct eye contact. “In fact, Iit’s morally wrong to think that. Very, very, morally wrong.”

Harry’s hand squeezes his hip, his waist, a secret code of sorts. It’s working.

“Do continue,” Simon says, but he sounds pained, blinking, trying to stop it.

“It’s morally wrong,” Louis continues, louder, “To kill people. It’s wrong to hurt them, to manipulate them, to punish people in front of others. It’s wrong to limit freedom, it’s wrong to forbid love, it’s wrong to forbid or excuse mistakes. Everyone you believe in - stand for - is wrong. You’re wrong. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner this will be over.”

It’s silent for a really, really long time. Simon was no longer holding a powerful stance, but a weak one.

“You’re right,” he finally says. Louis’ heart is in his throat. “You’re right. I’m wrong. I… I don’t know how I’ve done this for so long, but. I’m wrong.”

“So you’re going to shut this thing down,” Louis continues, more confidently this time, “You’re going to stop treating people like your little army rats, and let them free. You’re going to let them have their own opinions and lives and haircuts and whatever the else they fucking want,” Louis pauses for a second, voice rising, less shaky. Harry’s hand has never felt better in that moment. “You’re going to let all of your minions go and you’re not going to be in control of people anymore. Because it’s not right, it’s not fair, and your game is over.”

“You’re right,” Simon repeats. Louis feels like the weight of the world, that has literally been resting on his shoulders for the past few weeks, has been lifted.

It works. Louis isn’t sure how, exactly, but it worked.

It’s not long before the lights are flickering and they’re running back outside to find people rejoicing, celebrating, the fight is over, it’s over it’s over it’s over.

Louis feels like he can breathe properly for the first time in months. Harry tugs him up for a kiss and it feels like heaven and celebration and happiness all rolled up into one. There’s a big group hug seconds after their kiss ends, but he and Harry are smooshed together so he doesn’t mind it.

“You did it, my love, you did it,” Harry’s cheering in his ear, and no, Louis didn’t really do it, he kind of only did the last part, but he beams up at him anyway, flushed with happiness.

Things aren’t perfect. In fact, they’re kinda far from it, but in that moment, with silent and large celebrations going on all around them, everything kind of feels like it is.

Maybe it’ll even last forever.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hopefully you enjoyed this :) this was a lot of fun to write and i also learned a lot too. good fun. though i have to say, i'm relieved to finally have this thing finished.


End file.
